Lauren Ferg felt a sharp shooting pain in her stomach about a week and a half ago. It was a Thursday when the pain started, the sophomore at Eagan High School recalled, and by the following Saturday it was nearly unbearable.

“My parents took me to the doctor,” she said. “I had surgery scheduled for the next morning at 9:30 a.m.”

A key player on the third-ranked Eagan girls tennis team, Ferg had two things on her mind before going under the knife for her emergency appendectomy.

“I was a little worried about the surgery, just how it was going to go,” she said. “I was also worried about how long I was going to be out. I knew it was late in the season.”

Related Articles

While Ferg knew she was more than likely going to miss matches Sept. 26-27 against Blake and Farmington, respectively, she knew she couldn’t afford to miss last Thursday’s match against Eastview. That was the latter portion of a Sept. 15 rain out, and Ferg knew if she couldn’t finish her match at No. 3 singles, it would go into the books as a loss.

So, a mere five days after her surgery Ferg played, only able to serve underhand.

“I knew it was going to be a really close match, and that my match could be really important,” she said. “It was going to be an automatic forfeit if I didn’t play, and we needed that point. So, I felt some sense of responsibility to step up for my team.”

“I don’t think we beat Eastview without her playing,” coach Scott Nichols said. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we don’t. I think having her out there really inspired the team.”

Nichols, who’s been coaching at Eagan for 17 years, has never seen anything like that in his career.

“She is tough as nails,” he said. “She really had to grind it out.”

Ferg said while she was a little hesitant to play a few days after surgery, the fact the doctors told her playing wouldn’t cause any structural damage helped in her decision.

“It was kind of up to me,” she said. “So basically whatever I could take in terms of pain tolerance.”

Still, Ferg said that early last week she thought there was “no way” she could play.

“It was still really, really painful,” she said. “I started to feel a little bit better as the week went on, and even on Wednesday I wasn’t sure. Then on Thursday I thought I’d just give it a shot.”

Nichols said he was surprised when he learned Ferg was planning to play. “I talked to her folks, and they told me she wasn’t going to damage anything … or make it any worse, so I was OK with it,” he said. “It shows Lauren really cares about our goals as a team.”

The match itself was tough for Ferg. She couldn’t serve overhand and struggled to establish a net presence without her ability to hit anything over her shoulder.

“My serve is one of my biggest strengths, so it kind of hurt me,” she said. “I had to adjust not being on the offense right away. I had to play a little more defense to start. It ended up working out.”

“We were talking strategy about trying to get to the net and shorten point and then she told me that she couldn’t hit an overhead and we had to readjust,” Nichols added. “Anything under her shoulder and she looked fine on the court.”

Ferg will be an important part of a potential postseason run. She is 17-0 this season splitting time at No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Nichols said he’ll likely use her at No. 3 singles moving forward.

“She is the only player on our team with an undefeated record. We count on her heavily for that point,” Nichols said. “She knows that. She is used to the pressure. That is what she does. She has aspiration to play at the Division I level and as a long-standing coach she absolutely has the ability to do that. The sky is the limit for her.”

Ferg isn’t focused on that right now, though. Her main focus remains on sectionals as Eagan tries to qualify for state for the second consecutive season. Eagan has a bye for the first two rounds of the Class 2A, Section 3 playoffs and will play its first match in the quarterfinals on Friday.

“I’m pretty happy with the way we’re playing,” Ferg said. “It’s a big accomplishment to win conference. It meant a lot that I was able to help us accomplish this goal. Now, I’m hoping we can get to state again. I think we could perform really well there.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in High School Sports

CLEVELAND -- Former Apple Valley wrestler Seth Gross of South Dakota State won the title at 133 pounds, while former high school teammate Mark Hall finished second at 174 in helping Penn State earn its seventh team title in eight years Saturday at the NCAA championships. The Gophers’ Ethan Lizak finished fourth at 125 pounds, earning All-America honors for the...

Heading into this week, Eastview coach Molly Kasper was most excited that her players would get the opportunity to prove themselves. The Lightning were undefeated and entering their seventh straight Class 4A state tournament, this time as the top seed.

Kiara Buford continued her dominance of Minnesota high school girls basketball on Saturday, only this time in a different role. The St. Paul native won back-to-back state titles with Central as a player in 2006 and 2007 before going to play for the Gophers. On Saturday, in her fourth year as the head coach at Robbinsdale Cooper, Buford led the...

South Washington County fell one win short of an adapted floor hockey state title Saturday. The Thunderbolts suffered their first loss of the season in the championship game at Bloomington Jefferson High School, falling 13-4 to St. Cloud Area. St. Cloud Area (15-1) jumped out early and often, taking a 6-0 lead in the first period. The Slapshots were led...

In its eight state tournament appearance, and fourth championship game, Sauk Centre finally got over the hump. The top-seeded Mainstreeters completed a perfect 33-0 season with a 63-52 victory over third-seeded Roseau on Saturday to win the Class 2A girls basketball state title, completing what Sauk Centre coach Scott Bergman called a building process to reach the top of the...

Prescott will never forget how it won its first boys basketball state championship Saturday. Senior guard Peter Brookshaw buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Cardinals to a 63-62 victory over Valders at Kohl Center in Madison to win Wisconsin's Division 3 crown. https://twitter.com/Evan_Flood/status/975123168804392961 Brookshaw, a North Dakota State baseball commit, finished with 28 points -- including five...